In order to meet the current demand for fried snack food products, snack food producers have utilized high throughput processing methods, such as cooking methods. One example of such a method may utilize conveyors to move product through the cooking process. In some embodiments, the conveyors may include a number of screens to sort the desired product. For example, conveyors may be equipped with one or more screens to grade products by size during processing of the product. In other examples, screens may be used to selectively sort differently-sized products. Thus, the screens may preserve the quality of the product, such as cooked product. During use, the screens may accumulate sorted particulate and other materials. In many examples, the screens may need to be changed periodically to prevent clogging of the screen and/or impairment of the size grading capability of the screen which may adversely affect the quality of the finished product. The screens may need to be changed during operation of the conveyor.
Current conveyors have been engineered with removable screens which allow the exchange of the one or more screens while the conveyor is in operation. For example, a conveyor may include a side pull screen configuration where each screen is inserted through a slot in a sidewall of the conveyor and secured in place by one or more clamps. The use of clamps to secure the one or more screens within the conveyor presents several disadvantages.
For example, with the current high throughput cooking systems that utilize conveyors, an operator must hold the one or more clamps open to allow a screen to be pulled from the conveyor. While holding the one or more clamps open, the operator may be potentially exposed to hot product, steam, and/or hot surfaces of the conveyor including the screen and clamp. The operator may further be exposed to potential safety hazards due to the high acceleration motion of the conveyor. Additionally, during operation of the conveyor and especially during changing of the screens, the clamps may rattle loudly presenting a noise hazard.
Another disadvantage of the current example systems is that the clamps provide a multitude of crevices and small surfaces which may accumulate cooking oil residue and/or particulate. Over time these accumulations may result in sanitation issues and/or food safety hazards. Further, the multitude of crevices and small surfaces of each clamp may result in increased labor costs to maintain cleanliness standards as well as reduction of the operational time of the conveyor.
In addition, the repeated opening and closing of the clamps and/or other vibration/mechanical stresses upon each clamp may result in wear and/or stress fatigue of the clamp over time. The periodic maintenance and/or replacement of the clamps may result in increased maintenance costs, increased labor costs to perform the maintenance, and reduced operational time of the conveyor.
The inventors herein have recognized the above described deficiencies of the current designs for securing the one or more screens within a conveyor for processing food products and disclose a magnetically secured screen assembly to retain the one or more screens within the conveyor.